Bihar: SSB informer sells mobile, killed

A rickshawpuller-turned informer of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards the Indo-Nepal border at Kanhauli, was beaten to death by a jawan after it was found that the informer had sold off the mobile phone given to him by the force for food.

Police said that the rickshaw puller, Mohammad Sultan, 35,had been given a cell phone by the SSB to pass on timely information about smugglers but had sold it off to buy food. “Angered over Sultan’s action, Dinesh allegedly beat him up on July 20 and again on the following day. He was seriously wounded but no one admitted him to a hospital,” police said.

Sultan was admitted to a health centre by his wife on Monday evening but he succumbed to his injuries. The accused Dinesh Kumar, an SSB jawan with the 37th battalion, has been arrested.

When family members tried to lodge a complaint with the Kunhauli station, the police refused to do so, said a relative of the victim.

Tension erupted when a mob comprising of over 200 people stormed in Kunhauli police station on Monday night and pelted stones and torched vehicles — prompting the police to fire three rounds in the air. Two vehicles, including a police jeep, were set on fire.

Supaul SP Sudhir Kumar Podika, district magistrate Laxmi Prasad Chauhan and DIG (SSB) SS Thakur rushed to the spot and pacified the mob. “I have ordered an investigation. If any police official is found guilty, he will not be spared,” said Podika.